Candidates for Va. governor say they never used drugs

Virginia's nominees for governor, Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli, say they have never used illegal drugs.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch canvassed the statewide candidates on Thursday, a day after E.W. Jackson, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, held a news conference in Manassas, in which he discussed his past drug use.

"This shouldn't be an issue in the race, but Terry hasn't ever used any illegal drugs," said Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee.

Both of the nominees for attorney general said they had tried marijuana in their youth.

Kevin O'Holleran, a spokesman for state Sen. Mark R. Herring of Loudoun County, the Democratic nominee, said: "This shouldn't be an issue in the race, but like many others at the time, Mark tried marijuana in college."

Sen. Mark D. Obenshain of Harrisonburg, the GOP nominee, said in a statement that he briefly used marijuana in his youth after his father, Richard D. Obenshain, then the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, died in a plane crash in August 1978.

"For a short time as a teenager, following my dad's death, I used marijuana," wrote Obenshain.

"During my freshman year of college, however, I decided that it wasn't for me and I haven't looked back. That was a turning point in my life in a lot of respects."

Past drug use by candidates for political office likely carries less stigma with voters than it once did. Americans are by now familiar with admissions of past use by politicians, including President Barack Obama, who discussed his youthful experimentation with drugs in his memoir, "Dreams from My Father."

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported in April that "for the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue" a majority of Americans backed legalization of marijuana, with 52 percent in favor and 45 percent against.

In its national survey of 1,501 adults, 48 percent said they had tried marijuana, up from 38 percent a decade ago.

The Associated Press reported that in Manassas Wednesday, Jackson, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, discussed his past for 45 minutes. He said during his speech that he used marijuana as a youth, and when questioned after the speech, acknowledged that he experimented with other controlled substances, but did not go into detail.

The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, said in a statement Thursday that he has never used illegal drugs.

"I have never used illegal drugs, and as a doctor I know that proper care can help people overcome substance-abuse issues," he said in a statement.

"My time serving on (a Senate committee) made it clear that focusing on treatment, rehabilitation programs, and drug courts, will get results and save taxpayer dollars," Northam said.

"There are more important issues to Virginians in this election, including access to early childhood education, health care, and creating good-paying jobs across the commonwealth."

Cuccinelli, the state's current attorney general, told a politics class at the University of Virginia in February that his views on drug offenses have evolved somewhat in the past decade, but he cautioned that change at the state and federal levels will come slowly.

"I think a lot of states like Virginia will take a 'wait and see' approach, see how it works, see how it plays out, see whose worst nightmare is actually coming true," he said, referring to recent initiatives to decriminalize marijuana in Colorado and Washington state.

"I'm not ready to put in a bill to legalize it. Sorry," Cuccinelli said in response to a question during his appearance.

McAuliffe, whose autobiography is titled "What a Party!" has often joked about his natural restless energy.

In the preface of his autobiography, he wrote: "I have a reputation for being hyperactive and it's true. I love to be on the move and I can't keep still for long."

In answering questions posed in 2011 by the Lorton Patch, a Fairfax County publication, McAuliffe said:

"Never touched a drug in my life, never smoked pot. Can you imagine me on drugs? I'd be jumping off skyscrapers!"